Despite the Omicron scare and the massive spike in Covid cases in the country, Indians headed out in big numbers to ring in the new year to the hills and beaches and at hotels and homestays ranging from luxury to the budget category across most leisure destinations.Hit by night curbs, and varied inter city restrictions, last minute bookings were pouring in for hotel chains or home stay brands at driveable distances. Restaurants, pubs and bars were bracing for another washout year though.”At ITC Hotels, we continue to follow the WeAssure protocol for guests and associates’ safety. Welcomhotel Mussoorie, Welcomhotel Chail, and Welcomhotel Shimla are witnessing high interest from guests while there is an equally great demand for resort favorites such as ITC Grand Bharat and for the ever popular ITC Grand Goa as the year ends,” said ITC Hotels CEO Anil Chadha.Vista Rooms co-founder Amit Damani said the chain’s inventory was sold out for new year’s eve across destinations. “From Kasauli, Mussoorie, to Lonavla, Goa and Alibag. The demand has been really high. Any cancellations that we got were offset by more demand from last minute bookings as city night life was hit by curbs,” he added.Travel platform ixigo said it was seeing a substantial uptick in last minute search queries for travel in the last week of December. Search queries for Goa, Andaman and Nicobar and Udaipur had gone up by 75%, 78% and 71% respectively compared to the same time last year on the platform. A spokesperson for an Indian luxury hotel chain said its hotels in Udaipur, Corbett and Goa were doing ‘great’ business. “We have seen very good domestic tourist inflow and charter flights from foreign countries have also started. We are expecting last minute travelers from markets such as Mumbai for December 31. We have seen a few cancellations but people were also ready to come at the last minute. Goa is ready to usher in the new year and overall, the situation is good for the tourism industry,” said Nilesh Shah, president of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa.People familiar with the matter at Oyo said the company is clocking the highest number of bookings since the onset of the pandemic for December 30 and December 31. It had clocked around 52,000 bookings for Christmas and bookings for December 31 were still coming in.But nightclubs, pubs and bars weren’t expecting much. “We are only allowed to operate at 50% capacity and are not taking a lot of reservations. We won’t be entertaining any walk-ins as we don’t want any crowding. We will start billing people at around 9:30 pm,” said Akshay Anand, owner of Toy Room at Aloft Hotel in Delhi’s Aerocity and Ophelia at The Ashok.Mukesh Tolani, co-founder and director of brewpub chain Toit and the Bengaluru chapter head of National Restaurant Association of India said he wasn’t expecting much at all. “Most people have planned get togethers at homes or farmhouses. For the last couple of days, we have tried reaching out to the chief minister and the health minister and but they seem to be clear that they don’t want restaurants to function beyond 10 pm,” he added.Pradeep Shetty, joint honorary secretary at Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) said December 31 will turn out to be a damp squib because there was a lot of confusion in terms of operating timings for restaurants in Maharashtra including Mumbai.“There are no special celebrations. Restaurants are ready to welcome guests for simple sit-down dinners and at 50% capacity. There is a lot of confusion as at some places, local police officials are asking people to shut down at 9 pm in Mumbai or they are saying they should shut at 11 pm or midnight,” he added.In a tweet on Friday, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal wrote a cake was being ordered on Zomato every single second while in another post he wrote: “App opens are up 91% week on week compared to December 24 which was unusually high anyway. Expecting this 91% to land at 200-250% by 7 pm.” Competitor Swiggy tweeted around 8 pm it was getting 9049 orders per minute. Sriharsha Majety, co founder and CEO of Swiggy said on Swiggy’s first new year’s eve in 2014, it handled one order every three minutes. “How times have changed. Love India’s hunger for more,” Majety wrote.